


i won't run away (i love you too much)

by thespacenico



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Characters Playing Animal Crossing Game(s), Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Love Confessions, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:40:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24272236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thespacenico/pseuds/thespacenico
Summary: Lio couldn’t say when even if his life depended on it, but at some point, between several months of classes and late-night study dates and midnight coffee runs and three am life talks, the line separating possibility from reality began to look more than a little blurry.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 23
Kudos: 121





	i won't run away (i love you too much)

**Author's Note:**

> my quarantine secret santa gift for [mari](https://twitter.com/statiicdreams), and also my first time posting a promare fic!

From the very beginning, Lio knew that he would love Galo. 

It wasn’t love at first sight—Lio doesn’t think he believes in such things, but it was definitely  _ something.  _ A possibility, or a likelihood, something that made Lio look at Galo at the end of the very first night they met and think:  _ I could love him.  _

The thought scared him at first, unprecedented and unexpected and quite frankly, unwanted. The two of them quickly became friends and despite their differences, it was impossible for Lio not to grow overly fond of him in the process, and  _ that  _ certainly scared him enough that it took Galo three separate attempts to ask him out before they officially started dating.

He still feels badly about that, because the last thing he wants is for Galo to think that he’s been settled for, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Turns out Galo wasn’t bothered by Lio’s initial resistance in the slightest, instead simply considering it a challenge that he “masterfully overcame” (his words).

(Lio still feels bad.)

And from there it only got worse, although not in the worst way. He couldn’t say when even if his life depended on it, but at some point, between several months of classes and late-night study dates and midnight coffee runs and three am life talks, the line separating possibility from reality began to look more than a little blurry.

What he  _ can  _ say, absolutely and definitively, is that the first time he realized he’d fallen across the line entirely was during spring break, when they were apart for the first time in months. Galo purposely sent him the most unflattering picture of himself in the history of unflattering pictures known to mankind, and Lio had laughed so hard that he’d fallen off his bed and both Gueira and Meis had to come check on him. His ego may have been a little bruised after that, but other than that there was no denying it. 

Lio had looked at the picture again that night and thought, for the first time:  _ I love him. _

The strangest part? He wasn’t scared anymore, not at all. And for good reason, he thinks. He doesn’t want to imagine a life where he is afraid of loving Galo.

Why he’s ruminating about something so saccharine and sentimental while slumped over on his couch playing Animal Crossing on a Thursday afternoon, he has no idea.

“...io. Liiio.  _ Lio.”  _

Lio is startled back into the present by the sound of Galo’s voice just in time to see Galo’s avatar whack his own in the back of his head with a net. “Hey!” 

Galo snorts, full-bodied and genuine in a way that instantly fills Lio’s chest with warmth. He bounces his knees a couple times and lays his arms across Lio’s ankles, which are currently sprawled across Galo’s lap. “You alright there, firebug? You zoned out pretty hard.” 

Lio has to try very, very hard to suppress the blush creeping up his neck at his assigned nickname, despite hearing it at least once every day. Galo had given it to him before they started dating and increased its use tenfold after the fact, but now that Lio’s completely come to terms with the full scope of his feelings, it lands quite differently. He likes the attention, and thinking about the fact that he’s special or important enough to Galo to warrant receiving a nickname at all. 

“I’m fine,” he answers quickly, ducking his head slightly so that his bangs fall into his face. “Except for the permanent brain damage you just gave me.”

Galo answers by whacking Lio again. 

“Galo!” Lio quickly cycles through his tools for his own net as Galo cackles and runs away on-screen. “Get back here!”

“Never!” 

Lio catches him within ten seconds anyway, when he runs straight into a dead end where the river empties out into the ocean. That’s what he gets for leaving his vaulting pole on his own island. “Take  _ this,”  _ Lio says triumphantly, cornering Galo and laughing as he whacks him with his net right back. 

“Ow!” Galo yelps, jerking backward into the couch as if Lio has physically smacked him and only making Lio laugh more. “Hey, no fair!” 

“You started it!” 

Galo turns around to fight back and gets maybe two hits in before he’s immediately distracted by something else. “Oh,  _ oh,  _ Lio, stop,  _ stop it _ you’re gonna scare the big fish away!” 

Lio watches his net swipe through thin air where Galo had been standing a second before, chuckling as Galo guides his character closer to the shore and activates his fishing rod. “Who cares, it’s probably just a sea bass.” Then his gaze follows the motion of Galo casting his line out to sea, and his amusement quickly disappears when he sees the shadow of the fish in question. “Oh, wait. That’s really big.”

Galo’s line lands directly in front of the fish, and Lio is hopelessly endeared by the way he sucks in a breath and holds it as he waits for it to move. Lio watches quietly, wiggling his toes in Galo’s lap after the fish nips once at Galo’s bait then backs away. “If it’s something good, you have to give it to me,” he whispers, not wanting to break Galo’s concentration. Galo waves him away and Lio sticks his tongue out at him even though Galo’s eyes are still glued to the screen.

The fish latches onto Galo’s line on only the second try and he yells excitedly upon hitting the  _ A  _ button, yanking his Switch upwards as if he’s actually fishing. “I got it!” 

“I can see that,” Lio snorts, smiling mostly to himself at Galo’s childish excitement as the water stirs and splashes and then from it emerges a— _ something  _ that takes a full second and a half to come out of the water completely, it’s so big. 

Lio’s mouth drops open. “What in the world is _ —”  _

“Yes!” Galo cheers, pumping his fist in the air. “I got an oarfish!” 

“An  _ oarfish—” _ Lio makes a scandalized sound as Galo skips past the text bubbles and stuffs the giant, unbelievably long fish into his imaginary pockets. “Wait, you’re giving that to me, right?” 

“Why would I do that? I’m the one who caught it.” 

“On  _ my  _ island! That makes it my property.” 

“It’s from the ocean! The ocean is no one’s property!” 

“But—” 

“Finders keepers!” Galo declares, and then takes off running across Lio’s island before Lio can stop him.

“Galo!” Lio cries, throwing his legs over the edge of the couch and launching himself forward, smushing a hand against his cheek while attempting to give chase with his other hand still on the controls. “Give me my fish!” 

“You’ll have to catch me first!” Galo teases, laughing rather maniacally as he expertly pushes Lio back with his knee so he isn’t forced to give up his hands. 

Regardless, it’s another very, very short-lived chase. Galo makes the mistake of heading into the part of Lio’s island that’s been designated the forest, and running into a tree every two seconds makes it pretty easy for Lio to catch up. 

“Ha!” Lio smirks as he lands the first blow to Galo’s head with his net, punctuating each of his words with another hit. “I caught you, now give—it—back!”

Galo gets his net back out and Lio bursts into laughter when he attempts to hit him back and accidentally shakes the peaches out of a tree instead. But he doesn’t let that deter him, and before long they’re standing face-to-face and simply taking turns whacking each other with their nets, as if it’s supposed to accomplish anything. Lio ends up falling against Galo’s side, giggling uncontrollably as they continue, and only laughing harder and harder the longer it goes on. It shouldn’t be nearly as amusing as it is, but he genuinely can’t find it in himself to stop, especially when Galo pauses in his net-whacking to activate the “sorrow” reaction.

“Why are you crying? You’re the one who stole my fish!” 

“You’re messing up my mohawk,” Galo pouts, and the utter sincerity of his voice is just enough to send Lio right back over the edge. He’s laughing too hard now to do anything but bury his face in the fabric of Galo’s sweatshirt and try to calm himself down, and Galo’s arm comes down around his shoulders to hug him against his side like it’s second nature. 

Even when Lio manages to stop laughing, he can’t stop smiling, wide enough that his cheeks hurt with the force of it. He inhales a deep, steadying breath and lets it out, shaking his head and letting his hair ruffle against Galo. “You’re ridiculous, Galo Thymos.” When Galo doesn’t answer like he usually does with some sort of quip— _ yeah, ridiculously handsome, firebug,  _ or  _ of course, ridiculously awesome, Lio Fotia— _ Lio tilts his head up to find that Galo is already staring at him, and his heart practically stops in his chest at the look on his face. 

Because the look on his face looks like—it looks like how Lio feels. About Galo, about  _ them,  _ about everything he’s been thinking about for weeks now but hasn’t known how to say, and suddenly it’s right here in front of him. 

“What?” he asks breathlessly, and somehow he doesn’t think it has anything to do with how much he’s been laughing.

Galo seems to snap out of his trance then, and Lio doesn’t miss the way his cheeks flush slightly before he quickly looks away and back down at his Switch. “Oh, er—nothing.” He clears his throat, suddenly very interested in his controls, rotating the stick to make himself run in a few small circles. Any other day Lio might have been worried about what that reaction meant, if Galo’s arm weren’t still so warm and secure around his shoulders, showing no sign of pulling away.

Lio looks back down at his own screen, chewing on his lip as they both fall into a momentary quiet. It’s not an awkward or uncomfortable quiet, they’re far too comfortable with each other now for that ever to be a concern, but—he isn’t sure how to describe it exactly. More like timid, like there’s an unspoken something they can both still hear but haven’t quite acknowledged. Not to each other, at least—but maybe Lio’s getting too far ahead of himself. He can’t know for sure what Galo is thinking right now, and to suddenly assume that they’re on the same page about something so monumental would be irresponsible, would only set himself up for heartbreak. Besides, there’s no rush. He knows that.

After a while he imitates Galo’s previous motion, running around in a few circles before coming to a stop again near Galo’s character. He lifts a hand to casually brush a piece of hair behind his ear as he thinks of how to change the metaphorical subject. No need to dwell on something he isn’t even certain Galo is aware of yet.

“Hey, so—when do I finally get to come see your island, anyway? You’ve been working on it for a while.” 

Galo’s arm stiffens almost imperceptibly around Lio’s shoulders. “Oh. You mean, uh—like, right now?” 

Lio glances up at him, brows knitting together in confusion at the note of hesitance in Galo’s voice. “Not necessarily,” he answers slowly. “Just… I mean, you don’t have to let me come if you don’t want me to—”

“No,” Galo says abruptly, gaze still fixed determinedly on his screen. “I do. I, uh, I want you to come.” 

Lio blinks. “Okay.” 

“Okay,” Galo echoes, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ll just—go, then. So you can come to mine, I mean.” 

“Sure,” Lio agrees, offering a small smile that Galo doesn’t return, but only because he still isn’t looking at Lio to see it. 

They don’t speak as Galo leaves Lio’s island, only the tropical music of the game’s loading screen to fill the silence as they wait. Lio busies himself by sending lazy, half-written notes to his villagers while Galo heads back to his own island and starts the process of opening it to visitors. 

“Okay,” Galo repeats after another moment, and Lio  _ definitely  _ doesn’t miss the way his voice almost seems to shake. It makes something in Lio’s stomach twist nervously, because Galo isn’t easily fazed by anything at all, and for him to suddenly be acting so weird about something like Animal Crossing, of all things—something’s up. Not trusting his voice to mask his own uneasiness, he simply nods and moves his character to the airport counter so he can prepare to travel. 

“Also, just, uh—just make sure you’re watching when you’re flying over the island,” Galo adds, voice going uncharacteristically quiet. 

Lio frowns, looking up at Galo one more time. “Why?” 

Galo shrugs, much too nonchalantly for it to be, in fact, nonchalant. “You’ll see.” 

Lio hums, returning his attention to his Switch as the loading screen appears and the travel music begins, signaling the start of his flight over the island. “I suppose I will.” 

And—yeah. He does see. 

He sees a lot of things. He sees neat rows of fruit trees and cedar trees, and all different colors of all different flowers scattered along the riverbanks, hedges lining winding paths through the cliffs, a couple of the villagers’ houses here and there, and then… then there’s a completely empty stretch of land, and then there are more flowers. Blue windflowers and pink tulips, the ones that Lio has more of on his own island than he can count because he loves them too much to get rid of even one. 

There’s something else, though, too—simple white squares pasted all over the ground in a seemingly random pattern until he slowly realizes that they’re forming letters, that those letters are forming words. And as they all come into view, Lio finds himself staring down at Galo’s avatar, waving excitedly from where he stands next to the very three words he’s been holding in his palm for so many weeks now, rubbed thin from turning over and over and over again until they became a part of him, perfectly molded into the lines of his hands:  _ I love you.  _

And then it’s gone as quickly as it had appeared, as the plane lands and Lio’s character walks out of the airport and onto the dock of Galo’s island. 

For a long, long moment, Lio can’t bring himself to speak. He can’t bring himself to do  _ anything,  _ breath caught in his throat and heart kicking into overdrive as he tries to process exactly what he’s seen, and exactly what it means.  _ I love you. I love you. I love you IloveyouIloveyou— _ Lio stares blankly at his own screen, silent and motionless as the words flash through his mind again and again. It’s like emotional whiplash, how suddenly things have just changed.

He can feel Galo’s gaze on him now. The room is so silent, they could probably hear a piece of dust hitting the floor and everything else that stirs in its wake. If anything, Lio is sure that Galo can hear the way his heart is beating, so desperately and so rapidly in his chest he can hardly breathe. Because this—he can’t believe this is real, this is happening, it’s not a dream and Galo is sitting right beside him waiting for his reaction, because Galo loves him and Lio—

It’s then that he realizes Galo’s arm has tightened around him noticeably, like he’s afraid Lio might run away. In another life, Lio thinks he might have, but not this one.  _ God,  _ never this one. 

Lio swallows. Then he takes a deep breath and pushes the control stick forward, guiding himself forward to where Galo stands and then turning, heading to where there’s a small empty space beside the last word—just enough for Lio to be able to do what he does next. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Galo not-so-subtly watching over his shoulder as he gets out his shovel and begins to dig. When he’s finished, he puts his shovel away and moves aside so that Galo can see the number two that now sits in the previously empty space. 

_ I love you 2.  _ It feels a bit silly, not being able to spell it out properly, but… it suits them, Lio thinks fondly. And when he finds the courage to look up again and meet Galo’s eyes, Galo is beaming at him with the brightest smile Lio has ever seen, cheeks flushed pink in stark contrast against the blue of his eyes, and it makes Lio wonder if those are his favorite colors because somehow, those colors were meant just for him, as if the universe already knew who he would love.

They set their consoles aside at the same time, and Galo’s arms are open just in time to catch Lio, who throws himself forward with enough force to knock Galo over. Galo laughs as they fall back onto the couch, arms wrapped tightly around Lio’s middle and Lio’s wrapped tightly around Galo’s shoulders. “Hi, firebug.” 

“You absolute dork,” Lio chuckles affectionately, burying his blushing mess of a face against Galo’s neck. If that nickname already did things to him before, he can’t wait to see what it does to him now. “I can’t believe you. How long have you been planning that one?” 

“Heh. Um… a while,” Galo admits sheepishly. He lays his cheek in Lio’s hair, sliding one hand up to rest between Lio’s shoulder blades, pressing him closer. “I... I wanted to tell you sooner, but I didn’t wanna scare you.” 

Lio’s eyelids flutter at the confession and he lifts his head to look at Galo, opening his mouth to answer and then quickly closing it when he feels heat building suddenly behind his eyes. He still can’t quite believe this is real, and he’s suddenly so overwhelmed by the moment that he finds himself speechless yet again, desperately fighting back tears as he thinks, not for the first time:  _ I could never be scared of loving you.  _ Even without any kind of verbal explanation, Galo’s expression softens with understanding, and as Lio squeezes his eyes shut he feels Galo’s hands find their place on his cheeks, cradling his jaw. 

“Why are you crying?” he asks gently. Then he pauses, thinking. “You’re the one who stole my heart.”

Lio bursts into laughter at the cheesy line, giggling wetly and shaking his head as Galo grins up at him. He brushes Lio’s bangs from his forehead and tilts up to press it against his own, so close that Lio sees a couple of his tears drip onto Galo’s cheek. “It’s nothing,” Lio manages after a moment, smiling as Galo swipes his thumbs underneath his eyes to wipe away the other tears that threaten to spill. “Just… I love you.” 

Galo’s smile grows impossibly wider, and to Lio he is impossibly beautiful. “I love you, too.” 

He tucks a stray piece of hair behind Lio’s ear before sliding his hand around to the back of his neck, and Lio gladly allows himself to be pulled down into a kiss. It’s light, and careful, and lingering in a way that Lio never remembers them kissing before, so sickeningly sweet that Lio feels light-headed by the time they break apart, still hovering close and sighing against each other’s mouths. Only for a moment though, because then Lio smirks and pats Galo’s cheek. “Now give me back my oarfish.” 

Galo barks a laugh, threading his fingers through the hair at the back of Lio’s neck. “Not a chance.” 

And Lio thinks, as he leans back down to kiss Galo again, who’s already given him more than he ever knew there was to want:  _ I can live with that.  _

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on [twitter](https://twitter.com/thespacenico)!  
> [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/thespacenico/)!  
> [tumblr](https://www.thespacenico.tumblr.com)!  
> 


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